Song #259: "Shock The Monkey"--Peter Gabriel (1982)

Once the leader, and lead singer, for Genesis, Peter Gabriel first came to my attention with his single, "Games Without Frontiers" from his 1980 "Melt" LP, a song which featured a 22-year old backup singer named Kate Bush.

You only heard this song if you were listening to AOR radio, as it never sniffed the Top 40. So, the cool kids who preferred XL102 over Q94, and the cooler kids like me who lived in Beaverdam and could pick up stations from four, sometimes five different markets, heard Gabriel on 3WV in Charlottesville, WAVA in Washington, and K94 in Tidewater.

Yeah, I had XL102 Rocks bumper stickers on the back of my clipboard, and was proud of it. Take that, Q!  :) :)

Fast forward two years and Gabriel returns with "Security", and its first single, released as I began my three-year stint at Patrick Henry High School, was today's song. Catchy? Yes. Rife with deeper meaning? Kind of.

It's not about a monkey; the monkey represents jealousy and how it can take a person to his or her's most basic instincts. Come to think of it, when one is really jealous, you can begin to do things and make decisions you normally wouldn't consider.

So, nothing wrong with shocking that jealousy back into its proper place and getting your head on straight. And doing it with such a hypnotic sound makes it even enjoyable.  :)

Peter returns later in the countdown one more time. Much later. Like 2017 later.